Seymour voters Tuesday rejected the town and school spending plans for the second time.
The results for the $20.5 million proposed town budget:
NO: 950
YES: 753
The $29.8 million school budget:
NO: 1056
YES: 649
The town’s Board of Finance will meet Wednesday night to reduce the amount of money town and school leaders say they need to operate next year.
Voters first rejected the budgets April 29. The finance board then trimmed $579,000 from the spending plans.
A third vote has been scheduled for May 18.
After the results were announced in the Seymour Community Center, town leaders seemed genuinely baffled.
“I’m very disappointed,” schools Superintendent MaryAnne Mascolo said. Then, after a long pause: “And I’m speechless.”
Prior to the budget vote, Mascolo posted several items on the school district’s website she classified as “setting the record straight.”
She addressed issues such as “teachers make too much money“ and the “administration is top heavy.”
First Selectman Paul Roy said the town has its work cut out.
He said furlough days — unpaid days off — are a possibility if more money has to be cut from the town side of the budget.
See the video at the top of the page for Roy’s complete reaction.
The fact the budgets were rejected again — by a wide margin — surprised finance board chairman Mark Thompson.
“We know there are a lot of people in town that are hurting, a lot of seniors who are on fixed incomes, other people who are on very tight budgets,” Thompson said.
“They don’t like being faced with increased taxes. Our job on the board of finance is to listen to everyone in town and just keep working on this budget,” he said.
Officials said 1,703 people voted Tuesday. That is less than last month’s failed budget vote, when 1,794 people came to the polls.
Last month’s budget vote had the highest number of voters ever for a Seymour budget referendum.
Still, it’s a small percentage of the town’s total numbered of registered voters, which hovers at about 9,500 people.
It’s a percentage that irked Mascolo.
She said more parents need to vote.
“We have over 1,600 families that send their children to our school district,” Mascolo said. “If they all voted, it would have a positive outcome.”
Click the videos to hear how some Seymour residents voted Tuesday.
The budgets, at a combined total of $50.35 million, would have increased the tax rate from 25.80 to 27.55 mills.
A resident with a property assessed at $250,000 now pays $6,450 in taxes. If voters had approved the proposed budgets, that tax bill would have increased by about $430, to $6,887.
While it is difficult situation – members of this town WILL NOT approve the BOE budget until something is done from the top down…and donations of increases back to the school system is a huge shell game. PLEASE stand firm on your ground and REFUSE to approve this budget until the good ole’ gals and boy up at Central Office decide who will pick the short straw and take a walk. Name a few? That would be way too easy — let them figure it out — they are more than capable. Look at eduction qualifications vs level of salary — one stands out more than the rest…take a long hard look!
My response to SeymourMom, from another Seymour Mom is this: It is pretty sad when a board has to play ‘games’ that you speak of, in order to get people out to CARE and VOTE. It would be an amazing day when people educated themselves regarding how/where/why the money goes where it goes. What is SAD is the idea that you would be willing to punish all the ‘little’ people by voting ‘no’. Your ‘NO’ vote is not punishing those people you complain about (administrators). Teacher’s do not make a ton of money for the amount of education they have. If people have a problem with the handful of bad teachers than go to the union. Stop walking around ignorant. Get your facts straight. You don’t like the administrators making over a hundred thousand dollars but you won’t complain when a CEO of a company makes millions a year? Go figure. Please go educate yourself and figure out where that finger of yours should be pointing.
There is no room for cuts in administration, there are already too few administrators, we need to add more. SeymourMoM has no idea what she is talking about.
They should put the budget back to the way it was originally and educate people like SeymourMom what the money is for, so that they can vote for it. We don’t need more cuts, we need to raise the budget higher.
The problem isn’t the budget, its the extremely high amount of old people in Seymour who don’t have kids in the school system anymore, who are voting with their greed instead of looking out for the kids.
This is absolutely RIDICULOUS. Seymour is already among the worst education systems in the state. There is no selection in classes, grad rates are low, discipline is illogical. The old people in this town are the only people who vote and would vote the budget down if it proposed $1 in spending. People NEED to come out and vote before Seymour High is shut down. This sickens me.
News flash to the town of Seymour…. The USA is in a recession and there are budget cuts everywhere and in every sector. Companies are leaving CT, closing, freezing pay or laying off employees. There should be no exception for the Town of Seymour. Also, other valley towns are cutting budgets and laying off school administrative positions, teachers or town employees, so Seymour can take a lesson from them (i.e. the City of Shelton. Shelton has a business tax base to lessen the burden on the taxpayer, unlike Seymour and they are cutting their budget and conducting laying offs). The new motto is “more with less” everywhere and that includes the Town of Seymour. The school budget and employment structure will need to be modified to reflect the budget on a “more with less” basis. Also, the school employees are extremely fortunate as they have very lucrative benefit (health/pension/unions) packages. It is time to scale back and not at the expense of
the taxpayer or the school children. As for the school system, I for one (as well as other parents that I know) choose not to send my children to the Seymour School system, so you can use my tax dollars and the senior citizen’s tax dollars to support a well balanced, fair and responsible budget. Lastly, I am a middle aged, finance executive that does not support the excess spending of the Town of Seymour and I will be there to consistently vote “No” until a reasonable budget concession is met.
To Valleygirl3:
you are yet another uninformed person about the proposed budget. The fact that you don’t even send your kids to Seymour Schools indicates that you believe the schools aren’t good enough. Yet, you are against the budget which would add programs for the kids, get them new technology so they are prepared for the 21st century workplace, and bring them better opportunities once they do graduate.
In other words, by voting no, you’re perpetuating the very reason you don’t send your kids to our schools. Therefore, your comment is hypocritical and meaningless. You should use your finance background to actually take a look at the budget instead of making up reasons to vote against it.
To Valley Resident:
It is very clear that my comments are based on the fact that the country is in a recession and the people are being over taxed. My comments were meant for the budget as a whole not just the education system. The Town of Seymour needs to scale back. As stated below, the USA is in a recession with unemployment at an all time high. Many families are suffering due to job losses, pay freezes etc. Also, there are many homes for sale or in foreclosure with many economic indicators leaning towards a double dip recession. Correct, I do not send my children to the Seymour schools for many reasons and one being that the school system is inferior. That does not make me hypocritical for using my free choice to send my children where I see fit and you should be happy that you have the extra funds from my children not attending the school system. There is and has been enough money sunk into the Seymour school system over the years with little improvement (i.e.
test scores are low, college acceptance rates) except in the school administation salaries. The administration salaries are exorbitant and I think a pay cut is in order. In fact, if this is really about the children then the school administration should take a pay cut or forfeit a week of pay (like other companies have done) or do “more with less”. Again, the town already has my extra tax dollars as well as the senior citizen’s tax dollars; therefore, the town should be able to make due with all the extra surplus for the school budget and town. Stop blaming the seniors as they have paid taxes way longer than you or me and gain nothing from it. Based on your prior comments, it is grossly apparent that you have no compassion or value in the contributions of the senior citizen’s of Seymour. Maybe the town should freeze the seniors taxes and have all that utilize the school system pay an additional percentage tax and give a credit to those that don’t utilize the schools. This way the school can have a separate budget with separate funds all controlled by the school administration (this should get you everything you need including pay increases for the administration and union). I’ll be more than willing to cast a vote on that. Lastly, I am utilizing my senior executive finance background (with an MBA in Finance), one that I received by not attending the Seymour school system even though I have lived here for 30+ years. By the way, you failed to mention your field of expertise.
I actually do know what I am talking about…I used to work in the school system. Smoke and mirrors my friends. Teachers are underpaid and unappreciated. Maryanne and her compatriots are necessary evils – but when the finance manager is promoted to Assistant Superintendent just because he went to school for it is asinine. There are plenty of teachers who have the same qualifications…they were not promoted nor given the opportunity to be promoted. Then…when the promotion happens, a new finance manager is hired – huh?
As far as sending my children elsewhere, the Seymour High School was at risk of loosing its accreditation the year my child would have been a junior. Getting into a good college is challenging enough and my family chose not to take a gamble on the Board of Ed pulling through. Fortunately for the kids, the accreditation happened – but not without having to dump a ton of money into a building that should have been the middle school – but that is another story. I know everyone is passionate about the kids getting a good education as am I. Administrators needed in the schools, sure that makes sense. The town is able to function with out a 100K Finance director, so should the Central Office.
Interesting how the video above of a quite uneducated, ignorant young girl shows a perfect example of why this budget is being voted down. “I just don’t believe in it”… You just don’t believe in what? By voting no, you’re telling me that you believe in large class sizes for teachers who are already being overloaded with work that parents and others have no idea about. You believe in large class sizes for students with learning disabilities, low reading levels, and students who cannot clearly be challenged. You believe in supplies having to provided by teachers who are clearly underpaid and ARE TAKING A PAY FREEZE next year… I’m sure she doesn’t go to work and have to pay for general supplies for her workplace to function. That is just the tip of the iceberg but the sad truth is for people to educate themselves before listening to their mothers in the background telling them how to vote and why they should be voting that way.
To Valleygirl3 + SeymourMoM:
you both claim that its the administration (Finance director, etc.) that needs to be cut, yet you then go on to say that the salary in question is $100k. So, you want to cut the budget $100k.
Guess what? The budget was lowered by far more than $100k, and you STILL voted no the second time. So, stop trying to pretend you actually know whats in the budget or that the problem is money, because its patently clear that you’re voting “no” out of vindictiveness because you oppose the politics of the people involved (superintendent, finance director, etc.) You even admitted that you are unhappy as to how those people got their positions. So, you’re admitting it has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual budget.
To prove my point, if they lowered the budget another $100k without eliminating the finance director or lowering administrators pay, would you vote for the budget? The answer is no, which proves me right. You are just uninformed, petty people who are willing to punish the kids in order to “get” those “bad old administrators.”
I agree w/ Valley Resident. It is so frustrating to hear people voting ‘no’ because they don’t want to pay the administrators salary? Do you think your vote will EVER effect their yearly salary? It effects the children and teachers AND new programs. I love that my kids are in a classroom of 20 or less kids. If a teacher goes then the number goes up. Those who are in greater need of these ‘programs’ that go away when the budget gets cut will have their kids missing out. The kids suffering are the ones who we say can not afford this budget. I can probably swing paying for my child to do an ‘extra’ activity outside of school. Those who can’t afford to have children who lose out. Please go to meetings. Please learn about the 3 positions at the Board of Ed office that have been around for 30plus years. Get educated. Figure out how to get the other 8,000 people out to vote. Quit complaining about ‘top heavy’. You never punish the administrators. You punish the kids. It is wrong.
To Valley Resident,
Now it is grossly apparent to me that you did not read my comment nor did you comprehend it. Please read again. I never commented on the politics involved. I clearly stated that the country is in a recession and money is an issue as well as over taxing the population. Also, that I am against the exorbitant school administration salaries and benefits/unions. One CT hospital is having employees pay salary decreased by 3% across the board. I do not want to punish the kids or the seniors. However, you are very well versed in name calling (“old people” hypocrite, vicious) which shows your ignorance and intolerability towards another’s viewpoint. Seymour needs to take a lesson from Shelton – Flat Budget – No Tax Increase – It is the REALITY everywhere!!!